There’s a couple of reasons why I’ve stopped writing detailed album reviews. The first is that I think music is so accessible now that people just want to be pointed in a helpful direction and listen for themselves, and don’t necessarily want to read 1000 words of me just wittering nonsense about hats and Lemon Meringue Pietini's. The second is perfectly summed up by the new Phogg album ‘I Need You Without Fear’, which is that most albums I really like are so complex they tak

“If the world is at stake, but you feel nothing.” That’s how Bellefolie describes ‘Beautiful Madness’, and it turns out to be an accurate way in, with opening track ‘Modern Apathy’ setting the tone perfectly. Lyrically it gets your mind working straight away: “Apples hoppin’ off trees into modern apathy, they don’t sound alive at all, staring into coloured walls”, a line that neatly sets out the albums temperature. While the opener quickly grabs your attention, it’s the inst

Copenhagen based artist Kleo has released her album ‘ Event Horizon ’ through Tambourhinoceros, a soft intimate record that rewards close listening. Built around gentle vocals, subtle electronics, and beautifully restrained string arrangements, it has a calmness to it that makes it easy to enjoy on 1st listen. The lyrics are thoughtful, warm and human too, and you you will really understand Kleo by the end of it. ‘ Stars and UFO’ s feels particularly close up and personal,

I doubt whether Björn Yttling does too much sitting around watching the Swedish equivalent of ‘ Homes Under the Hammer’ on his weekday mornings. He is, of course, one-third of the (still touring) Peter Bjorn and John , seemingly produces about half of new Nordic pop releases, and has now re-awakened his Yttling Jazz project for the first time in over a decade — we suspect the man’s concept of “a quiet weekend” involves conducting a small orchestra in his kitchen. His latest

Revealed without much fanfare at all, A-ha keyboardist and artist Magne Facebook has released a thoughtful enjoyable album in 'Living...

As always, not a 'best of;' but just stuff I’ve loved listening to in 2024. It’s meant to be in a vague order, with the real favourites...

I was looking at Club 8 ’s release history a couple of weeks back as I was trying to find their Christmas singles to include in our...

A very welcome return for the Fredrik Solfors led project, which we've featured extensively since his debut album in 2017. Pretty much...

Good day to you, are you looking for anything in particular? Army of Moths have appeared fairly frequently on these pages, but the 1st...

To be honest I was quite overwhelmed looking at the range of releases around the world this week, and normally I'd have probably been...

I'm a week behind. Anyway, no reviews, just the recommended albums from last week. It's a huge welcome back for My Life Story,...

Just a quick mention for another band featured regularly on these pages, and it's appropriate given that it's a remix of the track that I...

As normal, no detailed reviews, just a guide to 5 recommended albums from across the world that are all new in the last week. Norwegian /...

This weeks recommended Nordic and non Nordic albums are: I've written about Holy Ship before, the project of Swedish musician Jonatan...

A new weekly feature for 2024 that hopefully will last more than a week. No detailed reviews, just a guide to what we'll be listening to...

We've been back writing for a couple of months on and off, so it's probably a good opportunity to sit back and summarise some of the...

Harri wrote about Damen a couple of months ago when they released a great single called 'Dancing Dingo', and the Gothenburg 4 piece have...

Any self respecting Nordic music expert should, of course, have already come across The Mukherjee Development, given they’ve been...

We've followed songwriter Henning Ejnefjäll and his band Armadillo King around for a few years now, and he's been on quite a journey. We...

I don't quite know where to start, but the new(ish) Ghosts on TV album seems the most appropriate place given it's the album I've...